Coroner launches task force to fight Rx drug abuse

 HUNTINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Huntington County Coroner Philip Zahm was reviewing death statistics recently when he noticed an unsettling spike in the numbers.

He saw that accidental prescription-drug overdoses in the county this year have killed eight people - the same number of people who died from such overdoses in all of 2011.

"I'm thinking, `Good Lord, something's got to happen here,' " Zahm recalled.
   
So he created a countywide task force of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, paramedics, pharmacists, religious leaders, politicians and others to fight the abuse of prescription narcotics.
   
"It's a little cliche, but one death related to prescription-drug abuse is one too many," he said.
 
Throughout the country, prescription drugs have become a popular way to get high. Their abundance makes them easy to obtain.

Teens are often associated with the problem. But in Huntington County, the deaths this year have occurred in people 25 to 50 years old, Zahm said.
   
The cause of death in these cases has usually been "multi-drug toxicity," meaning that those who died also had alcohol or other medication in their system, he said.
   
To combat this, Zahm said, the task force will make fliers, warning of the dangers of mixing drugs with other drugs or alcohol, that pharmacies can attach to prescriptions they distribute.
   
He said the task force will also work to get prescription drugs out of homes, encouraging residents to drop off unwanted drugs in designated containers.
   
"We want people to know that those containers are available," he said.
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 Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net